


The Heart of the Team

by SaddlesoapOpera



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Drabble Collection, Gen, Spinel/Pearl Swap AU, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-23 01:16:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21311746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaddlesoapOpera/pseuds/SaddlesoapOpera
Summary: A series of brief scenes from throughout the Steven Universe series, depicting how episodes might play out if Spinel had always been a Crystal Gem and Pearl had been the one abandoned. Spoilers abound all over the place, and may even appear earlier than the episode numbers might otherwise suggest. Be warned!
Comments: 25
Kudos: 85





	1. S1 E16: Cartoon Logic, AKA Steven the Sword Fighter

**Author's Note:**

> This concept was inspired by explorations of the Pearl/Spinel swap seen on these [two](https://bluebitchbee.tumblr.com/post/187549341894/she-took-you-with-her-isnt-thatcharming) [Tumblrs](https://saiscribbles.tumblr.com/post/188689332544/your-swappearl-design-and-concept-looks-awesome).

Steven clapped in delight and burst into deep guffaws as he felt Spinel’s finger tap him on the shoulder blade while he sat on his bed facing her. The Gem had reached her rubbery arm all the way around the building and back to him.

“Wow, Spinel!” he said, wiping away a gleeful tear. “That’s so cool! How far can you go? Can you touch the top of the temple? No, wait! Can you high-five a seagull? I’ve always wanted to do that! Oh! Oh! OH! Could you get a snack from the Big Donut without leaving my room?”

Spinel waved her free hand dismissively. “You betcha! I’m not even breakin’ a sweat!” She wound up her other arm into a springy coil, and then launched it out the open window. She leaned back to brace herself while she blindly felt around town with her distant hand. Her tongue stuck out between her lips as she frowned in concentration. “Lessee … it oughta be somewhere around about -”

One block north of the beachfront boardwalk, a speeding delivery truck snagged Spinel’s hyper-stretched arm with its right front tire, and started winding it in like a fishing rod reel.

“WHOA, now!” Spinel grunted as she was wrenched off her feet and then smashed into the wall below the windowsill. “Somethin’s funny, and not ha-ha funny! Hold on, just lemme, nngh…” She unlooped her uncaught arm from under the beach house, and swung it out in a wide arc over the water to head off its mate. 

Before she could catch up, however, her hand smacked into a passing speedboat’s windscreen, broke the transparent plastic, and then wrapped bullwhip style around the bent metal frame. Both truck and boat kept moving, speeding up in opposite directions to try and escape their strange tethers. Spinel’s eyes bulged, and her slender, overalls-clad frame began widening and flattening. The wall behind her creaked. “OOF! Hoo boy, gonna feel this one tomorrow!”

“Uh-oh!” Steven rushed over to her, glancing back and forth in indecision. “What can I do?”

Spinel forced a wide, wide smile. “Aww shucks, it’s all good, kiddo! I’m gonna be just-”

With a sound like canvas tearing, Spinel ripped apart down the middle and then burst into a cloud of rosy vapour. Her heart-shaped gemstone clinked to the floor.

Steven’s eyes went wide as saucers.  _ “SPINEL!” _

Garnet climbed the half-stairs up to Steven’s bedroom. She frowned in concern. “Oh, no …”

“Dang.” Amethyst peeked out from behind Garnet and shook her head. “Been a while since THAT’S happened.”

Steven cradled the gemstone with both hands as if carrying a wounded bird. He raced up to the other Gems with tears in his eyes. “Garnet! Amethyst! It’s Spinel! She was stretching, and I kept asking her to do more … and then she … and something went wrong … and-”

His panicked stammering stopped at Garnet’s stone-firm grip on his shoulder and her mirror-shaded stare into his eyes. “Steven. It’s all right. Spinel’s going to be fine.”

“Sh-She is?” Steven sniffled back tears.

Garnet nodded. “Sometimes, if our bodies are badly damaged, we release our physical forms and retreat to our gems to regenerate.”

“So she's gonna be okay?” Steven dried his eyes with a forearm.

Amethyst put a reassuring hand on Steven’s back and leaned in with a half smile. “Totally. We were just a little surprised, cause Spinel’s so tough that it takes a lot to make her, y’know, go poof.”

All at once, a hulking, iridescent figure heaved up onto the windowsill and leaned into the room. She brushed her rainbow locks out of her wide, worried eyes. “I was digging up some ore on the beach, and I saw what happened … did Spinny really just go off? It’s been a LONG time! Everything okay in here?”

“We’re fine, Bismuth,” Garnet said. “We were just explaining things to Steven.”

The smith climbed the rest of the way into the room and looked down at Spinel’s remains with a slow shake of her head. “Mm-mm-mm. Chisel me smooth. Heck of a way to learn the facts of life, huh?”

“Yeah,” Steven said softly as he stared at the still, silent gemstone. “So, how long will it take her to regenerate? Five minutes? Ten minutes?”

** _TWO WEEKS LATER …_ **

The beach house was as silent as a tomb. Without anyone to get into mischief with, Amethyst had been sullen and mopey, and spent much of her time in animal shapes. Sleepy ones. Without a partner for witty banter, Bismuth had stayed extra busy in her forge in the temple. Without the added chaos factor that kept her future vision lively and ever-mutable, Garnet had been flat and strict and stiff.

And without his cheeriest, wildest, most fun-loving Gem-parent, Steven had grown progressively more morose. Finally unable to stand it, he’d waited until the others were all occupied elsewhere, picked up Spinel’s gemstone, and gently tapped it to the star-shaped lock on the temple door.

Spinel’s door inflated outward like a bubble, and then burst with the sound of a party horn and a spray of confetti. Steven waved the scraps aside and cautiously crept inside.

The circus-like space was brightly, jarringly pink and white, with broad stripes decorating the canvas walls behind thick shelves that held dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands of props, devices, toys, and tools.

“Whoa,” Steven whispered. “Gem practical jokes!” He looked down at the stone in his hands. “Spinel, you’re always using this stuff to cheer everyone up, but now you can’t do that. Maybe you’ve been waiting for somebody to take care of that for you …?” He raised his eyebrows in hope. After a pause, he added: “If you don’t want me to try out some of these cool toys, just say so, okay?”

When the gemstone stayed silent, Steven pocketed the stone, let out an excited chuckle and then reached out for a hound-sized wind-up toy shaped like some kind of hopping, sharp-toothed, big-headed lizard …


	2. S1 E45: Rose’s Scabbard

“Spinel …!” Steven couldn’t hope to keep up with the Gem’s spidery, rubbery, lunging climb. He reached and clambered, kicking off rocks and debris, and then struggled to get past a derelict injector still clinging to the barren canyon wall. “Spinel, please! Nngh … this isn’t like you! Is it … hahh… is it something I did?”

He got on top of the injector and jumped up to peek over the top of the canyon wall. The backward glare Steven got for his trouble was so cold, so venomous, that it seemed to pull the weightless warmth out of his heart. His legs kicked at empty air, and he fell back down against the injector. 

“OOF!” His fingers skidded on the smooth glass of the machine’s cylinder. The whole thing groaned and lurched, and its uppermost legs popped out of the stone. He scrambled frantically and cried out, leaping upward just as the metal legs gave out entirely and the whole device tumbled end over end to crash into the Kindergarten canyon below. He landed on the cliff — barely — and hauled himself up over the jagged edge to flop forward, panting. Behind him, down below, the freshly fallen injector’s wreckage smoked and creaked. 

Ahead, the moonlight backlit Spinel as she faced away from him, standing and juggling Rose’s sword, a twisted piece of metal from another injector, a glossy sphere of blue glass, a flaming torch, and a bouquet of pale pink flowers.

“Spinel …?” Steven got to his feet and moved closer with inching, careful steps.

“She used to love it when I did this,” Spinel said without turning around. “This place seemed wonderful, way back when, can you believe that? Before we knew better. We laughed, we had fun. Right here. I’d juggle anything she threw my way. Anything. I could handle it all. And she was so happy. For a while.” She piled up the assorted items in an unsteady, teetering tower balanced on her upturned right hand. “Do you remember? Did you get any of her memories, at all?” The torch’s flames started wilting and scorching the flowers. Spinel sniffled back tears.

Steven stepped closer. He frowned in concern, but said nothing.

“This was where it all got rolling,” Spinel said. “Five thousand years ago …”

She tossed up the props again, and caught them in loops of her stretching, snaking arms and fingers. Scattered smouldering flowers made a backdrop of smoke like a curtain, and the torch sharpened her backlit shadow to create a pair of puppet-figures on the flat, ashen rock. One was a smaller, more childish Spinel, and the other was the towering, softly curved form of Rose Quartz. She flexed and shifted, and the shadow-puppets came to life.

_ “Spinel …” _ Spinel’s voice was deeper and smoother, mimicking Rose’s serene, motherly tone.

“Y-Yes?” As her younger self, she was so reedy and high-pitched that she positively squeaked.

_ “You’ve been so brave, staying with me so far. But soon there won’t be any turning back. I’m going to stay and fight for this planet. You don’t have to do this with me. You can still get away.”  _ Rose reached out a hand.

The little Spinel took it in both of hers. “But … but I’m your best friend! I don’t wanna go, if you’re staying!”

_ “I know you don’t. Please, please try to understand. There’s no undoing this. If we lose we’ll be killed, and even if we win we can never go home.” _

“Home is anywhere you are. I’m not goin’ anywhere else!” The Spinel puppet snaked her limbs out in a hug tight enough to compress Rose’s silhouette in places.

Rose chuckled bittersweetly, and hugged back.  _ “My sweet Spinel.” _

“R-Rose …”

Spinel shuddered, and the puppet show fell apart as she lost control of the intricate display. Her limbs pulled in again, and she sat down with a heavy sigh. “All I ever wanted was to make her happy,” she whispered. “Now she’s gone, and I’m … still here.” She looked up at the moon. “I always wondered if she could see what you see.” She heaved a deeper, wincing sigh. “Eeesh. Some show I’m putting on for her …”

“It’s not bad at all,” Steven offered. He tossed the glass orb to Spinel. When she caught it and tossed it back by reflex, he smiled. “Five stars, even.” His eyes flicked down to the star on his shirt.

Spinel laughed, and the act squeezed out fresh tears. She sat back and laughed and wept, and Steven joined her, their tears sparkling in the moonlight.


	3. S2 E5: The Show Must Go On, AKA Sworn to the Sword

“Why?” Steven asked. His brows furrowed. “What’s wrong with Spinel teaching her? Connie’s been having fun and learning to fight at the same time — and she can walk on her hands, now!”

Garnet looked away, toward the view of the rolling surf. “You’ve never seen Spinel in battle. She … changes.”

“What do you mean?” Steven fidgeted. One hand touched his shirt-covered gemstone. “I’ve seen you guys fight lots of times! I’ve helped out, even!”

“Fighting,” Garnet said. “Not in battle. Not in a war, where there’s no end in sight and no relief coming. Spinel is very powerful, but she hates fighting, Steven. She was made to spread joy and happiness. The anguish the war caused for Rose and the rest of us tormented Spinel. In the rebellion, she fought with utter fury, desperate to end things as soon as possible, no matter the cost. She pushed herself to her absolute limits, and took insane risks. If she was injured, or exhausted, she’d never admit it. She’d smile through the pain, until nothing was left but her gemstone. And then she’d do it again.”

Cold sweat broke out on Steven’s forehead. His mind flashed back through recent events. The strain in Connie’s smiles. The way she sat down more slowly, walked more gingerly. The way she’d suddenly started wearing makeup one day, and taken up sporting long sleeves despite the balmy weather. A haunting nightmare-daydream offered the sight of Connie pulled in two directions by a pair of corrupted gem-beasts, smiling bravely as she stretched and stretched and-

“THANKS FOR TELLING ME THAT! I GOTTA GO NOW, BYE!” He scrambled for the warp pad and disappeared in a column of light.

☆ ☆ ☆

Connie and Spinel stood on the checkerboard flagstones of the ancient sky arena, surrounded by props and devices. Life-sized wind-up warriors. Snaking ribbons of firecrackers. Jagged-toothed traps. Pizza-sized sawblades.

“Steven’s got a big heart,” Spinel said firmly. “All this trouble’s eatin’ him up. I’ve seen it before. We gotta lighten that load. Make him happy again. We gotta put on a brave smile, even if we gotta force it. In this game, it’s winner-take-all, and there ain’t any time-outs. When he looks to you, he’s gotta see you smiling. He’s gotta know you believe in him. How you feel inside doesn’t matter.” Her gleaming smile stretched her cheeks.

Connie’s expression turned grave. She nodded. “How I feel doesn’t matter.” Her training vestments whipped in the stratospheric breeze, and the bangles on her wrists and ankles softly chimed as she settled into a loose and agile ready stance. She raised her fists.

“Ah-ah,” Spinel said as she turned away and rummaged in an open crate. “You’re just about ready for the next level, I think.” She turned back to Connie, and held out one of two hefty, long-handled, mallet-like warhammers. “Remember … big smile, no matter what!”

The girl took the heavy weapon, and bent up the corners of her mouth to show her teeth. Her knees trembled. “No matter what!”

In the distance, Steven sprinted toward them. But as Spinel hopped backward and raised her own hammer, the arena exploded into a dizzying tempest of clacking and whirring toys, screaming saws, and blasting firecrackers. Steven frowned in determination, and then rushed into the fray.

☆ ☆ ☆

With Steven’s shield defending her, Connie was able to put all her focus into her offense. She wheeled and swung, leading with the mallet’s massive head, and Spinel had to stretch and flex inhumanly to avoid her strikes more than once. They pressed the advantage and drove the Gem back for a time.

Finally, though, Spinel tossed her hammer aside and her snaking arms whirled around from opposite directions to sweep the pair off their feet. Connie’s hammer fell, and Steven’s shield winked out. Spinel’s fists snapped to the sides of her head and pounded in frustration. “NO! You’re messin’ it all up! You gotta let us do this! We’re here for YOU, Steven! All for you!”

“We’re here for EACH OTHER!” Steven shot back. He took Connie’s bandaged hand in his. “We’ll fight together!”

“You shouldn’t be fighting at all!” Spinel shouted, hands upturned in supplication. “This game’s for keeps!”

Steven stomped a sandaled foot: “This isn’t a game!”

“It’s ALL a game!” Spinel’s voice picked up a shrill edge. Her pink eyes blazed.

“Nobody gets hurt in a game!” Steven shot back. “Nobody DIES!”

The Gem towered over him, mad eyes burning, fingers flexed like talons, arms and legs jangling in random angles like lightning bolts. _ “THAT’S A LIE AND YOU KNOW IT, ROSE!” _

The kids stared in still and silent shock.

“I … I m-mean …” Spinel’s quivering limbs sagged. She heaved a sigh as she slowly retracted her arms and legs to normal length. “We’re done for today, Connie. We’re good.” She pulled herself upright and moved to sit with her legs dangling off the ragged edge of the arena’s stone, watching the sunset through a haze of tears.

Steven approached on one side, and Connie followed on the other. “Spinel …?” He reached out a hand but then drew it back. “I’m sorry I butted in on your training. But Connie was starting to really get hurt, and all this game and showbiz talk was making her hide it…”

Connie frowned. Her eyes dropped to her bruised, bandaged hands. “Did Rose really tell you the rebellion was a game?”

Spinel choked on a chuckle. “No …” She wiped away her tears. “Rose always took that seriously. I was the one playing make-believe.” She shivered and sharply shook her head. When she stilled, her bright smile was back again. “You two are pretty serious too, huh?” She winked.

Steven and Connie shared a rosy blush and an awkward sidelong glance.

“Heh.” Spinel looked out at the dipping sun again. “When you gotta fight, I guess that’s what really counts. Havin’ somethin’ to fight for.” She rolled backward and tipped upright in a reverse pratfall. “C’mon … I’ll show you how to handle this stuff a little safer, okay?”


	4. S3 E8: Mr. Greg

The luxury penthouse suite’s ceiling soared up into darkness in the gloomy, silent, post-party stillness. Spinel padded through the place with a weary sigh and then eased open the bedroom door.

Steven and his father were sprawled on the bed, sacked out after the musical excitement of the day. Spinel stood watching them for a long moment before giving her trick bowtie a flick that set it to spinning like a fan. She sighed again, slumped, and plodded out onto the glass-fenced balcony overlooking the glittering nighttime splendour of Empire City. As the tie slowed to a stop, she gripped the guardrail, took a deep breath, and sang.

_ “It’s fine, I saw this coming, I knew it all had to end,” _ she crooned to the starry sky. _ “Gee, it's swell she finally made another friend.” _

She climbed into the balcony’s half-inch glass with one stretching step, and produced three pink glass orbs with a few deft sleight-of-hand gestures. She juggled the balls while taking sweeping, swaying strides on the glass.

_ “That’s right, I didn’t stumble — Spinel doesn’t break, I bend.” _ She caught two of the orbs. The third dropped forty storeys to shatter on the sidewalk below. _ “I’m pleased as punch she finally made another friend.” _

She whirled around and dropped back down to the balcony floor, leaning back against the glass and holding up the remaining orbs. With another playful flick of the wrist, one ball bore a magenta sketch of Rose Quartz, and the other, a less flattering doodle of Greg. She bounced them on her palms with the drawings facing each other.

_ “What did you say about me? What did you say?” _ With an airy toss, the orbs changed hands and then went back to bouncing. _ “What did you see without me? What did you see?” _ She caught them and drew them in close. The sketches touched. _ “Did you play games without me? What did you play?” _

Spinel pressed harder and the Rose orb broke first, leaving Greg’s intact. She blinked back tears._ “Did you know that when you showed up, she forgot about me?” _ When she turned and hurled the last ball off the balcony, it was marked with a sketch of her own face, instead.

_ “It’s f-fine, I saw this coming, I knew it all had to end.” _She hugged herself, snaking her stretching arms out of her tuxedo sleeves until they wrapped around her chest five times over. _ “Gee, it's swell she finally made another friend.” _ She rose up, legs extending, until the skyscrapers were below her and the moon backlit her to a silhouette _ . “Yeah, it’s fine. I know this story. Just not a big fan of the end.” _ Her hands pulled out of the coil and wrenched open her shirt and bowtie to expose her gemstone. _ “It breaks my heart she went and made another …. another … another …” _

She dropped back to the balcony in a boneless heap of tangled limbs. “Friend.”

Movement in the darkened room caught her eye. She started pulling herself together. “Greg …?”

Steven was up, and his father was pulling on a bathrobe over his tux.

“You were awake?” Spinel dried her eyes and forced a brittle chuckle. “Th-That wasn’t … it’s a work in progress, honest! I-”

Greg kept his back turned. “Nothing’s going to fix this, is it?” He headed toward the room door.

Spinel rushed to follow, but stumbled over her own still-retracting limbs and fell. “Greg! Wait!”

The human sighed. “I’m sorry you had to be around me.” Just as Steven called out to him, Greg plodded out the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This version of Spinel's iconic musical number would be a slower, smokier jazz version, like a sad piece from an old-school torch singer.


	5. S3 E20: Bismuth

“You know, I never really thought about it before,” Steven mused, peering up at Bismuth past the tray of snacks he was carrying toward the long picnic table on the beach. “How come you have a birthday party every year, when the other Gems don’t?”

Bismuth set down the full crate of sodas she carried in one hand, and then looked out to sea. “Well, it’s not exactly my birthday,” she said. “Today’s more like my ... anniversary. Celebrating the day I became a real Crystal Gem. I guess you’re old enough to hear about that, now.”

Steven’s eyes twinkled like stars. “You mean the day you met Mom, and Garnet, and-”

“Not quite, Steve-o,” Bismuth said as she reached out a broad hand to muss the child’s hair. “I knew them for a while before I really saw things their way. Today’s the anniversary of the day I got a good talking-to by someone wiser than me. Someone who understood Rose a little better.”

Chaaaaps cascaded down into an empty bowl. Steven shook the bag to make sure every crumb got out. “What did Garnet tell you?”

Bismuth chuckled. “Oh, it wasn’t Garnet.”

** _FIVE THOUSAND YEARS AGO …_ **

“Uhgh, you’re too nosey for your own good, Spinny!” Bismuth swung back and forth, cradling the sheet-covered bundle and trying to keep it away from Spinel’s stretching, craning, reaching gaze. The winding volcano-side pathway left little room to maneuver.

“What can I say?” Spinel countered with a shrug. “I love surprises! C’mon, lemme look!”

Bismuth turned and dodged and ducked a few more times before reaching her limit with a furious roar. “ARRGH! FINE! I’ll show you. But you keep this between us until I show it to Rose, understand?”

Spinel nodded in deep, rubber-necked swings, and flashed a massive smile.

“This way.” Bismuth led Spinel back into her forge-lair and toward a row of statues lined up as target dummies. Once the stone door sealed behind them, the smith unwrapped the new device, and strapped it to her forearm. “I call it … the Breaking Point.” A Crystal Gems star marked the thing. Its facing end came to a pointed cone tip of glossy alloy.

“Oooooh…” Spinel slowly tilted her head. “So, what’s it do? Knock down doors?”

Bismuth stomped over to one of the statues. “Not quite. It’s a weapon. The last weapon we’ll ever need.” She fixed her stance. “You’ve had my back for years, I trust you in a fight. But I know you don’t like fighting. You weren’t built for it.” She lined up the conical tip with the carved false gemstone on the statue’s chest. The weapon primed with a whirr and a clank. “If we face the Diamonds with this ... the war will finally be over.” 

The Breaking Point shot forth like a piledriver, and punched a fist-sized hole right through the statue. The faux gemstone was reduced to powder by the impact.

Bismuth raised the thing and blew flinty smoke of its tip with a satisfied smile. She glanced over at the witness expectantly. “Well? Whaddya think, Spinny?” She frowned. “...Spinny?”

Spinel stood as still and quiet as the target statues, her head bowed and her hands loosely balled into fists by her sides. Without looking up at Bismuth, she answered: “You gonna shatter ME with that thing, Biz?”

“Wh-What?” Bismuth’s dusky face blanched. “No! Of course not! I could never do that!”

“No?” Spinel finally met Bismuth’s eyes with a glare as pink and hard as the heart-shaped stone on her chest. “What makes you so sure? You wanna shatter the Diamonds, doncha?”

Bismuth raised and clenched a fist. “Yes! JUST them! Cut out the keystone, and the arch falls! Quick and clean and easy! No more battles, no more losing friends …”

“Uh-huh.” Spinel stayed quiet. Dull. Her voice was flat and empty. “So, I guess the imperial guards will let you stroll right up, huh? All those perfect Quartz troopers and Topaz bodyguards will get right out of your way.”

“They …” She dropped her fist. “They made their choice. I’ll tell them to stand down. I’ll give ‘em a chance — it’s more than they’d give us.”

Spinel slowly nodded. “But they won’t take it. And you’ll shatter them.”

“If I have to.”

“Okay. So you gotta shatter them, too, I guess. It happens. But … do any of ‘em have friends? Comrades? Battle buddies, like you ’n’ me? Friends they talked to, fought next to, maybe even _ fused with, _ when nobody was lookin’?” Spinel narrowed her eyes. “Are you gonna leave anybody behind when you shatter those guards?”

Bismuth scowled. “How am I supposed to know that?”

“Oh, don’t worry, we’ll find out. Cause after you break all those Gems, whoever’s left will come for you. I know I would.” Spinel’s eyes shone, welling up with tears. “If somebody took all of you away from me, it wouldn’t matter why. I’d lose it. I wouldn’t care what happened to me, Biz. I’d come for the ones who did it, and they’d have to shatter me to make me stop.”

The weapon was pointed downward, now. Hanging heavy on Bismuth’s arm. “Hey, Spinny, don’t even joke about-”

“Do I SOUND like I’m joking?” Spinel snapped. She hoisted up on stretching legs until she towered a head’s height over Bismuth and stared down into her eyes. “They WILL have friends, Biz! You know they will! And they’ll come, and you’ll have to shatter them, too! And some of them won’t be fighters. They’ll be Zircon clerks and Nephrite pilots — maybe even some poor little Pearl! Maybe one of them has their own  _ Spinel _ , Biz. You don’t know. YOU DON’T KNOW!” She lashed out, arms like whips, and snared the Breaking Point. She heaved it up and thrust out her chest, touching the deadly tip to the core of her gemstone.

Bismuth’s eyes widened. She fought against the grip, but Spinel wobbled and wiggled with every tug, keeping her body and the weapon lined up. “Stop it!” Bismuth grunted. “This thing’s dangerous!”

“Ain’t that the point?” Spinel said with a wicked grin. Her teary eyes flashed madly. “Just think of how proud Rose is gonna be, when she’s knee-deep in shards, all thanks to you!” Spinel stretched out two fingers to snag the Breaking Point’s primer. “C’mon, Biz! Don’t lose your nerve now! Let’s make sure this thingy really works!” She started pulling the piston back. The Breaking Point hissed out steam. “You wanna shatter Gems, right? So do it! Go on, do it! DO IT!”

“SPINNY! STOP!” Bismuth’s free hand formed a wide cleaver. She smashed the weapon with an overhand swing. Both of them fell back to the hot, dusty stone floor.

The two of them sat in deafening silence for a long moment, catching their breaths with slow, deep gasps of the flame-scented air.

Finally, Bismuth rubbed the tears out of her dark eyes with thumb and forefinger and gave a rueful chuckle. “You’re out of your knappin’ mind, girl.” She heaved a weary sigh. “ … Thanks for setting me straight.”

Spinel offered a small smile and a smaller shrug. “We all go a little crazy, sometimes. Takes one to know one.” She spread her arms wide, wider, until they reached out farther than her friend’s massive bulk.

Bismuth crawled over and took the offered hug, squeezing until Spinel’s head grew a little bigger from the pressure.


	6. S5 E18: Twenty Questions, AKA A Single Pale Rose

“Talk …?” Spinel swallowed hard. Sweat beaded on her brow. “H-Haha, that’s kinda boring, doncha think? Who wants to just sit around TALKING, blah-blah-blah all day long, amirite?” She laughed louder, cackling over Steven’s next attempt to press her. When he waited for her to finish and then inhaled to try again, she cut him off: “Hey, I got a way better idea! Why don’t we play a GAME, instead? You love games, right, Steven?”

Steven frowned. “Spinel, please! I really-”

“EVERYBODY loves games!” she interrupted with a sweep of her hand. “Lessee … how about … Twenty Questions? You can play first. Just ask some yes-or-no questions, and I’ll answer. If you figure out what you wanna know before you run out, you win! And if not, you lose … _ and we can never play this again. _ ” She kept smiling, but her voice picked up a low, grave edge with those words.

“Twenty Questions … ?” Steven said with a tilt of his head. “Are you serious?”

Spinel nodded stiffly. “Yes, and yes. That’s two down.”

“What? Hold on!” Steven waved his hands urgently. “You’re counting THOSE?”

“Yep,” Spinel answered. “Three.”

Steven blanched. “Wait! This isn’t fair! I didn’t mean those ones! I need a time-out, to think this over. Can I have a time-out?”

“No.” Spinel’s bottom lip quivered. Her eyes tightened. “Four.”

“Uhgh. Fine.” Steven took a slow, deep breath, eyes closed, and then sharply focused on the Gem before him. “This isn’t just a game. Not like usual. You’re doing this for a reason. Right?”

“Yes. Five.”

“You can’t just tell me what I want to know?”

“No. Six.”

Steven touched a hand to his gemstone. “Spinel … did you shatter Pink Diamond?”

She looked away, and rubbed her upper arms with her hands. “No. Seven.”

“So Mom DID do it?”

“No. Eight.”

Steven stared. “Wait, what? But … so who shattered Pink Diamond, if neither of you did?”

Spinel stared back, as still as a statue.

“Oh, right,” Steven said with a frown. “Yes or no, only. Uh … did Garnet shatter Pink Diamond?”

“No. Nine.”

“Did Bismuth do it?”

“No. Ten.”

“So it was one of the other Crystal Gems?”

Spinel sighed softly. “No. Eleven.”

Steven took a step back. “No way … we didn’t do it at all? We were  _ framed? _ ”

“No. And yes. Thirteen.”

“This is crazy!” Steven slowly shook his head. “How could they do that? Homeworld shattered Pink Diamond, and pinned it on us? It was all some big conspiracy?”

“No. And yes. Fifteen.”

“But …” Steven thought back to visions and testimonies. To conflicting accounts and confusing paradoxes. To Bismuth’s story of the forging of Rose’s special blade, and a Homeworld Ruby’s bitter tale of bearing witness. To standing trial when not even the legal counsels could get the story straight. A cold sweat chilled his skin. “Did anybody from Homeworld shatter Pink Diamond, for ANY reason?”

“No. Sixteen.”

Steven swallowed down a growing lump in his throat. “Did anybody from Earth shatter Pink Diamond?”

“No.” Spinel squeezed herself tight, like she feared she might fly to bits. “Seventeen.”

“Did …” the words clotted in Steven’s mouth. The air felt thick, like cotton wool, and the comforting familiarity of the home around him, of everything he knew, was melting away. “ … Did ANYBODY shatter Pink Diamond?”

Spinel’s eyes shone. “N-No. Eighteen.”

Steven’s voice lowered. “She’s still alive?”

“No.” Spinel sniffled. Tears streaked her cheeks. “Nineteen.”

The last question came as a barely audible whisper: “Spinel … were Mom and Pink Diamond the same Gem?”

“You win, kiddo.” Spinel turned away … and found herself facing the wide-eyed, stunned stares of Garnet, Amethyst and Bismuth. She gasped.


	7. The Movie

A rain of white-hot, fist-sized meteors streaked down from the sky and smashed craters into the lighthouse slope, the field, the beach, and the nearest edges of Beach City. A larger rock followed, smashing a house-sized divot into the hillside and leaving the lighthouse slightly tilted. Steven, Garnet, Amethyst and Spinel shielded their faces against the superheated, rock-flecked wind.

“What’s happening?” Steven shouted over the roar.

“It’s the mass-driver!” Garnet cried back. “Someone’s activated the defenses on the moonbase!”

Steven’s eyes widened. “There’s a base on the MOON?”

Before they could speak on, the largest moon-rock cracked vertically, and a smooth cylinder of gem-tech alloy popped up at its top. A door on the shaft slid open, and bright light silhouetted a thin, short-haired, painfully skinny figure wreathed in dark, wispy silks. A polished white cabochon shone on the pale, gleaming figure’s forehead. She stepped forward with balletic grace and stood balanced on a tiny outcropping on the meteorite’s leading edge.

“Well, well, well, my stars above,” she said airily. “Just look what wonders imploding an entire quarter of a galactic empire bought you!” She bowed toward each Gem in turn, giving a courtly curtsey every time. “You must be Garnet. And you, the little Amethyst. Ah, and Pink Diamond’s precious playmate, Spinel. She took you with her.” A subtle quaver slipped into her smooth, elegant tone. The rock beneath her feet fractured. “I-Isn’t that … delightful?”

“Is that …?” Amethyst asked.

“A Pearl,” Garnet replied.

Spinel stepped back and swallowed hard. “No way …” she said under her breath. “You. It can’t be …!”

The Pearl hid a haughty titter behind the back of one hand. “Oh ho ho! But I’m afraid it can be. And it is. I’ve made some changes in my spare time, and now I’m here to bring the curtain down on this pathetic little stageplay!” Her wide blue eyes shone with icy menace.

“Whoa-whoa-whoa!” Steven stammered as he raced forward and urgently waved his hands. “This has gotta be a misunderstanding! In case you haven’t heard, I’ve established peace across the galaxy-”

“Oh, I’m aware. I listened to your clumsy excuse for oratory one thousand, five hundred and thirty-six times while I prepared. It was quite … INSPIRING!” With a bright flash, she was holding a spiral-tipped spear. She swung the weapon, and an energy blast caught Steven in the chest and bowled him over back to his waiting friends. “I was especially fond of the part where Pink Diamond deemed the future of her entire species less important than one useless water-logged planet and a handful of flawed ... traitorous … REBELS!”

The invader’s smooth gemstone blazed, and all at once a dozen flickering, seething copies of her menaced the Crystal Gems from all sides. Swirling clouds of fog wreathed the slope in a pale haze. The earthlings readied their weapons for the onslaught, settling into combat stances, but the newcomer swanned forth without the slightest hint of tension. She sang as she and her doubles came in with wide, sweeping swings and precise, perfect thrusts.

_ “Why did you have to look up to her — aside from in a literal sense?” _

Amethyst lashed with her whip, but the spear’s haft blocked and caught its length, and two Pearl-doubles twirled to unleash shin-strikes to Amethyst’s abdomen. She bent around the blows and tumbled backward.

_ “Didn’t you see that this big charade came with a bigger expense?” _

Garnet led with her fists. Three fearsome blows hit empty air as the Pearl ducked and weaved, and the last punch burst a hologram in a puff of sparkles and broken light. Two more appeared in its place, and they and four others all tackled Garnet at once.

_ “And your blind faith left her out of control and overzealous!” _

Spinel coiled her legs like springs and pounced with triple-wide hands outstretched for a crushing grab. There was a flash of white, and she found herself grasping a large metal cylinder instead. The thing ruptured from her squeeze, and savagely cold half-liquefied gas gushed out and temporarily froze her solid in her stretched, warped pose.

The Pearl’s shadow fell over Spinel. She raised her spear, point down and aimed at her heart-shaped gemstone.  _ “I'm telling you for your own good, and not because I'm …!” _

A burst of pink bowled her over as Steven’s bubble shielded Spinel. He frowned at the Pearl with a determined glare.

Gravity seemed all but optional for their attacker. She flipped back and danced up the near-vertical slope of the tilting lighthouse. Her copies ran interference to waylay the pursuers. Wave after wave of holographic attackers buried the Crystal Gems under jabbing spears and hammering forearms and shins.

_ “Did you think that you were strong — in the real way?” _

Steven barreled past the doubles with bursts of his bubble and swings of his shield, chasing the Pearl up the sloped tower’s side. “Please, stop this! We don’t have to fight!”

The Pearl rolled her eyes. As they swept downward again, a fresh quartet of holograms blocked Steven’s path with spears at the ready.  _ “I could’ve taught you to be strong — in the REAL way!” _

A volley of energy blasts from the holograms and the Pearl herself hammered at Steven’s hastily raised shield. His sandals skidded on the steep slope.

_ “Suffering can inspire you!” _

The doubles lunged, and Steven tumbled back in a mass of flickering, lashing limbs. Garnet soared over the pile in a high arc, aiming to bring a two-gauntlet smash down onto the Pearl.

_ “Your pain can be your rock —” _ The Pearl swung a hand, her gemstone flashed, and a half-ton of jagged moon-rock emerged, caught Garnet in the gut and sent her sailing back down to the hillside.

When Amethyst charged forth next in a searing roll-attack, the Pearl’s spear was set to receive the charge. Amethyst stopped in a split-second with the point an inch from her chin, and an energy blast from the spear hit her like an uppercut.  _ “— and real talk: It lights a fire in you!” _

Steven scattered his holographic attackers with another bubble, and staggered back to rally with the others.

A gauntlet-smash from either side crumbled the moon-rock and Garnet rose out of a heap of gravel. “She’s running circles around us!”

“Give me a break!” Amethyst spit out a tooth that vanished in a burst of light-motes when it hit the grass. “I’m rusty!”

Spinel shook off a layer of frost and sent ripples through her thawing limbs. “It’s really her! Something’s wrong … she can’t be doin’ this! She can’t!”

“You know her, Spinel?” Steven said, wide-eyed. “Can you tell us who she is?”

The Pearl scowled. Her loose, nimble grip on her spear tightened until the shaft bent crooked. She let it drop and vanish, and pulled a six-inch rod of dark Homeworld alloy from her gemstone.

_ “I’m the one who had to be strong, from the first day!” _

The rod flashed out into a different spear, twice the size and tipped with a broad, serrated head of crackling pink energy. She spun while rising on-pointe and dipping with a wide flourish, and then streaked forward flanked by three doubles on either side.

_ “The one who’ll show you you were wrong, in the worst way!” _

She moved in fluid, lightning-quick lunges and leaps, ducking blows and swinging with the seething spear while her holograms parried and blocked and grappled with her foes.

_ “And I want to ignite you.” _

One by one, the Crystal Gems took searing slashes from the spear. Flames spread over their bodies, and at the base of the blaze circuit-like cracks opened in their forms.

_ “I want to watch you burn until he turns back from the sight of you!”  _

The flames consumed Garnet, Amethyst and Spinel entirely, and they poofed in bursts of ember-speckled smoke. Their helpless gemstones fell to the scorched grass.

Steven rushed to the Gems’ aid, but the Pearl caught him in the chest with the spear without even looking back at him. He let out his breath in a wheezing gasp, and dropped to his knees as she pulled the insubstantial blade free. A narrow burn-mark left a cinder-edged slash in his shirt, yet his flesh was untouched beneath it. Even so, for some reason it was all Steven could do to hold up his own weight.

The Pearl laughed her demure, haughty laugh again. The laughter grew this time, however. She quickly lost her composure and cackled madly, eyes blazing, and that unhinged gaze locked on Steven’s eyes as she swept the spear’s blade across her own slender throat. Her head fell from her shoulders, and she discorporated along with her foes.

As her smooth gemstone fell amid the foggy blast of her poofing, more burning meteors streaked down from above and struck here and there in the distance...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This version of Pearl's song would have a darker synth-classical edge to it, giving the upbeat vibes a bitter, ironic flavour.


End file.
